Following the Spring Bloom

By David Cobb

I’m a flower person, I love photographing them and I love photographing landscapes with spectacular blooms. As I followed the rainfall levels in southern California this year, I thought there might be a great wildflower bloom. I kept track of the spring desert bloom on a web site I’ve been using for a few years: http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/ca.html, so I could pinpoint exactly where the best blooms were located. Last week off I went to the Carrizo Mountains and Bitter Water Road in the Lost Hills to get these images:

I planned on visiting Joshua Tree National Park too, but I knew the bloom was poor due to a late spring. Still I wanted some images of the trees and according to the web site, I knew they were in bloom at the northern end of the park.

Then I went to the Anza Borrego Desert, because the wildflower site listed above ranked the bloom as a 7 on a scale of 10.

For photographing flowers in the Pacific Northwest, I use the books Oregon’s Best Wildflower Hikes: Northwest Region by George Wuerthner and Oregon’s Best Wildflower Hikes: Southwest Region, by Elizabeth L. Horn. There are some good web sites too for flower identification and peak flower blooms, my favorite for the Pacific Northwest being http://www.pnwflowers.com/ and for Oregon in particular I use http://oregonwildflowers.org/index1024.html

We’re just a few weeks away from a flower bloom like this in the Columbia River Gorge, and this year the expectation is for the bloom to be early. I just scouted the area on April 4, and I give it about two weeks until peak.

In addition to workshops in the Columbia River Gorge, I also do one-on-one training in the area. Anyone interested is welcome to contact me about rates and dates.